Poetry in the Park - Listowel

Kerry Writers’ Museum runs Poetry in the Park on the third Sunday of every month, an open reading that gives Listowel’s amateur and established poets a regular outlet in a town that already trades on its writers. The next sitting is Sunday, 16 August 2026 at 2:00pm. It is a smaller, quieter counterpart to the museum’s bigger set-piece events, the kind of monthly fixture that keeps a literary programme running between festivals rather than around them.

What to expect

The format is an open reading: poets, established or first-timers, can put their name down to read a few of their own poems or a favourite by someone else, in a relaxed setting connected to the museum. It draws on the same well that fills Listowel Writers’ Week and the town’s storytelling festival, Listowel’s identity as home to a concentration of Irish writing talent out of proportion to its size, from John B. Keane and Bryan MacMahon through to Brendan Kennelly. Sessions are informal and welcoming to newcomers rather than a performance for a passive audience, and the running order is generally first come, first read, with no pressure to perform if you would rather just listen.

Getting there

Kerry Writers’ Museum is on The Square in central Listowel, on the N69 between Tralee and Limerick, within easy walking distance of the town’s car parks and Bus Éireann stops.

While you’re in Listowel

Listowel calls itself Ireland’s literary capital, and a monthly open reading is the grassroots end of that same identity. There is more to see in Listowel and across Co. Kerry.

Good to know

• Date: third Sunday of every month; next date Sunday, 16 August 2026
• Time: 2:00pm
• Venue: Kerry Writers’ Museum, 24 The Square, Listowel
• Price: see kerrywritersmuseum.com for admission
• Recurrence: monthly, third Sunday